To tackle watershed challenges, strength comes with collaboration. The Watershed Project offers a variety of services to act as a catalyst for change, boost the capacity of grassroots groups, and foster networks of stakeholders, all with the mission to nurture a more resilient Bay Area.
Watershed Coordination
We have a long history of leading watershed coordination in Contra Costa County with fiscal sponsorship of small, grassroots watershed groups to coalition building and facilitation. By increasing capacity to our networks, we are improving the health and resilience of our watersheds. See below for examples of these efforts.
We organized and were community liaisons for the Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the Resilient by Design – North Richmond Home Team in Spring 2018, bringing local knowledge and connections to this process.
Past collaborative projects and publications include:
- Bay Friendly Coalition (now called ReScape)
- Historical Ecology of Miller Creek
- The Sausal Creek Watershed: Cultural and Natural History
- A Cultural and Natural History of the Baxter Creek Watershed
- A Cultural and Natural History of the San Pablo Creek Watershed
- The Weed Workers’ Handbook: A Guide to Techniques for Removing Bay Area Invasive Plants
Fiscal Sponsorship
Fiscal Sponsorship & Capacity Building for Group Consolidation and Incorporation
We provide fiscal sponsorship to local watershed groups, increasing their capacity and providing financial support to the organizations.
We are proud to be currently fiscally sponsoring:
We served as the conveners and provided capacity building for group consolidation and/or incorporation as 501(c)3 organizations to groups, including:
- Friends of Sausal Creek
- Friends of Miller Creek
- Friends of Baxter Creek
- Friends of San Leandro Creek
Visioning & Planning
We provide planning and design leadership to help community members, grassroots groups, agencies and other stakeholders work together to develop a community-supported vision plan and a roadmap for achieving their goals. We work to build partnerships, identify opportunities and constraints, brainstorm and organize everyone’s ideas to develop feasible projects. Visioning and planning projects might include:
- Community outreach, engagement and partnership-building
- Long term vision planning, master planning and project development
- Landscape architecture. environmental design and engineering
- Community-build events and volunteer coordination
- Integrated environmental education, job training and outdoor learning
- Stewardship and adaptive management solutions
- Grant writing and integrated fundraising strategies
Recent examples of these collaborative visioning plans include:
- North Richmond Water Needs Assessment
- El Sobrante Urban Greening Vision Plan
- North Richmond Shoreline Vision
- North Richmond Community Visioning: Outreach and Survey Findings
- Low Impact Design Placement Study for the West Contra Costa Watershed – Andrew Jack
- Stormwater Infrastructure Assessment – Bay Point
Wildcat-San Pablo Creeks Watershed Council
The Watershed Project acts as the secretary and facilitator of the Wildcat-San Pablo Creeks Watershed Council, which brings together stakeholders, including government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who seek solutions to challenges facing the Wildcat and San Pablo Creeks watersheds.
